Indian cement firm to sell facility for $594m

New Delhi, September 12, 2013

India's Jaiprakash Associates has agreed to sell its cement plant in Gujarat state to UltraTech Cement for around 38 billion rupees ($594 million) including debt.

UltraTech, the country's largest cement maker by production capacity, will issue shares worth up to 1.5 billion rupees to Jaiprakash and assume debts of about 36.50 billion rupees, the companies were quoted as saying in a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Jaiprakash Associates, which also has interests in power and infrastructure, has been trying to sell the plant for more than a year and was in talks with several potential buyers, including Ireland's CRH.

Including subsidiaries, Jaiprakash has total debts of 550 billion to 560 billion rupees which it plans to cut by 150 billion rupees by selling more assets including cement and power businesses this fiscal year ending next March, executive chairman Manoj Gaur said.

"Now we are focused on debt reduction across all businesses," Gaur said.

Jaiprakash, which currently has a cement production capacity of 36.8 million tonnes, will remain the country's third largest producer, the company said. - TradeArabia News Service